BOSTON — The Bruins’ perfect preseason came to an end Monday night, as the visiting Detroit Red Wings dealt Boston a 3-1 loss at TD Garden.
Goalie Tuukka Rask, who sat out the first four exhibition games as the Bruins rotated through candidates vying to be his backup, finished with 21 saves in his first appearance of the preseason. Loui Eriksson provided the only scoring of the night for Boston, tipping in a power-play goal with Rask pulled and 50.7 seconds remaining in the game.
FIRST PERIOD
Both teams started slowly from an offensive standpoint in their second meeting in three nights, with the first shot on goal not coming until just past the five-minute mark of the opening period.
That first shot elicited the first “Tuuuuuukka” chants of the season from the Garden crowd, however, as Rask used a sliding pad save to deny Drew Miller’s shot through traffic.
The Bruins managed just five shots on goal in the first, and Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard saved each with relative ease. Rask also saved all five shots he faced in the period.
Boston killed its lone penalty of the frame — a Chris Kelly trip — and began the second period with 1:51 of power-play time after Tomas Tatar was whistled for hooking in the closing seconds of the first.
SECOND PERIOD
Patrice Bergeron and Ryan Spooner both had scoring chances during the power-play spillover — with Spooner’s laser from the left circle going off Howard and then off the post — and Kelly was stonewalled on a breakaway shortly after it expired.
The Red Wings drew first blood at the 7:11 mark of the period. Miller, after being rejected by Rask for a second time, finally bested the Bruins netminder, threading a shot into the top-left corner for the game’s first goal.
A strong individual effort by Loui Eriksson nearly pulled the Bruins even a few minutes later. Eriksson deked around a defender at the blue line, fed Torey Krug from behind the net and nearly hammered home the rebound of Krug’s bid before Detroit D-man Jonathan Ericsson got his stick in the way.
The Wings soon made it 2-0, with Tomas Jurco outracing Linus Arnesson and Joe Morrow, absorbing a hook from Arnesson and beating Rask.
Kelly found another breakaway chance later in the period — this one coming with the Bruins shorthanded — but once again was turned aside by Howard, who also held strong during a Boston power play in the period’s final minute.
Brad Marchand did not leave the bench for the final 5:38 of the second and appeared to be favoring his right leg, but the winger was back on the ice to begin the third.
THIRD PERIOD
Detroit added to its lead just 48 minutes into the third, with Andreas Athanasiou beating Rask off an assist from Jurco.
David Pastrnak then proceeded to draw his third hooking call of the game, but the Bruins again came up empty on the ensuing power play. Howard, who was in midseason form for the visitors, made the save of the night on said man advantage, moving from right to left to snare a Spooner one-timer. He also foiled bids by Morrow and Matt Beleskey as part of a 30-save effort.
Pastrnak was on the receiving end of an uncalled penalty later in the frame, appearing to take a stick to the mouth from Red Wings defenseman Brian Lashoff.
Krug and Colin Miller assisted on Eriksson’s 6-on-4 tally.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
